Belarusians May Get To Jail For Connections With Foreigners :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian KGB passed an official warning against the leader of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, “in connection with the potential commitment of high treason”. KGB officers claim that the materials, received in course of the operative activities, “testify to the possible attempts to draw Lebedko into criminal activities, which may further lead to his committing a crime, envisaged by article 356 of the Criminal code (high treason)”. According to KGB, this is proved by the confidential character of his contacts with the foreign citizens, who are identified as spies, as well as by the information about his financial dependence on the foreign sponsors. The text of the protocol mentions the foreigners with whom Lebedko contacted: former head of the OSCE AMG Hans-Georg Wieck, US embassy personnel and executive director of the International Human Rights League Cathy Fitzpatrick.

The UCP leader was seized by the camouflaged masked agents on Tuesday at 4.30p.m. after he walked out of the US embassy gates. The attackers refused to identify themselves or show their IDs. Anatoly Lebedko was delivered to the KGB building in the Komsomolskaya street. KGB captain Chupahin familiarized the UCP leader with the official warning protocol. Lebedko, in his turn, called the enforced seizure “a crime”, noting that given they had sent to him normal summons, he would come as a law-abiding citizen. However, the special services men definitely sought to psychologically suppress him. “And it worked at first, - the UCP leader told the journalists: I thought that I would now share the destiny of Yuri Zakharenko and Viktor Gonchar. I only stopped worrying about my fate not until I saw that they brought me to the KGB headquarters”.
Lebedko’s staying in the KGB building lasted not so long ago. The head of this institution, who introduced himself as captain Chupahin, showed to the politician a “Protocol on official warning”, printed out beforehand. The conversation was recorded on video. Lebedko decisively protested against the violent nature of his detention and refused to sign anything in the absence of his lawyer.
Having read the protocol’s content, Lebedko inquired from Chupahin whether the procuracy ever sanctioned the surveillance of him. In response he heard really strange words for an official law-enforcer: “Hopefully, it did”.
Speaking before the journalists and foreign diplomats, the UCP leader said he was amazed to learn that the head of the political party can’t meet with the official AMG head and official representatives of the embassy.
Anatoly Lebedko considers the document, which he received to be totally amateurish. It is yet another evidence, he said, that the authorities are displeased by the UCP activities: “We present real danger to the Belarusian regime. KGB warning comes next after filing lawsuit against me for “Narodnaya Volya” publication on arms trade. If one forgets about emotional pattern, I believe the regime simply doesn’t control the situation. It is bewildered and can’t but get down to old Soviet practices.”
“Anyway, life goes on, - he said at the end of the press-conference: If this was simply a psychological pressure on me and my colleagues, it was totally ineffective and will never produce any result. In my opinion, Alexander Lukashenko stands personally behind that act, for I saw that the KGB agents themselves realized that they violated the law. One of them even apologized before me later, saying that they are small people and have to obey the orders”.
Lebedko didn’t rule out a possibility of filing a protest to the court and procuracy in order to get full information and clarifications concerning the unlawfulness of KGB actions.

Transcript of KGB Official Warning Protocol
“Citizen Lebedko A.V. is thereby notified that he was summoned to the Belarusian KGB on the basis of materials, received in course of the investigative activities into the character of his confidential contacts with the foreign nationals, who are identified as spies or are suspected of implication in the work of foreign security services, as well as on the basis of his financial dependence on western sponsors. This proves that soon he may be drawn into the criminal affairs and further commit a crime, envisaged by article 356 (high treason) of the Belarusian Criminal code.
In 1998 Anatoly Lebedko was on a two-week training trip in the J.Marshall’s European Center for security research (Western Germany, Garmish-Panterkirkhen), which is being actively used by the western special services in order to carry out surveillance against the Republic of Belarus. The trip was organized upon the mediation of the US embassy defense attaché D.Holachek, who is an intelligence officer. Another confirmation of that was the arrest and trial in 2001 over espionage of the Center’s employee Christopher Letz.
Data, received in the process of the activities on the US CIA’s residence network in Belarus, proved that Lebedko constantly contacted with the employees of the political department of the diplomatic mission (Bogner, Fungard), who are involved in the US special services’ work. It was them who numerously received from Lebedko the information of interest, including on the interior political processes inside the country.
It was then established that Lebedko’s visits to the US embassy last longer than those of the ordinary Belarusian citizens and usually last for an hour. At the same time, his companions often leave the diplomatic site within 10-15 minutes.
There have been also registered a number of his contacts with the head of the Advisory-Monitoring OSCE Group Hans-Georg Wieck during which the diplomat received from the Belarusian national various information on the development of the social-political situation in the country.
In course of the election campaign 2001 the diplomat carried out an open interference into our country’s interior affairs, using means from the AMG budget to finance certain politicized structures and their leaders. In connection with H.-G. Wieck’s intervention into the interior policy of a sovereign state, the Belarusian leadership ruled to permanently deny the ambassador entry visa to Belarus.
Lebedko’s contacts with the Polish national Kazanetsky, involved in the activities of foreign intelligence, took the form of reporting to the foreigner about the political situation in Belarus.
Kazanetsky, who represented in the country the interests of the Institute in support of democracy in Eastern Europe, financed through certain Belarusian resource centers the activities of some Belarusian politicians, Lebedko included.
A range of foreign nationals (Bogner, Fungard, Plavets, Kazanetsky and others) with whom Lebedko intensively cooperated, are denied entrance to the country and CIS territory for endangering our national interests.
In 2002 Lebedko sharply intensified his visiting of the foreign diplomatic compounds (he visited the US embassy alone more than 15 times).
According to the operative information and official statements by some leaders of the Belarusian politicized structures, Lebedko regularly gets paid for his work in foreign currency in the US embassy and other foreign representations. He also receives there funds to carry out working and private trips abroad…
According to the information at our disposal, Lebedko receives to carry out his activities organizational and material support from one of the functionaries of the International Human Rights League Catherine Fitzpatrick, who’s also implicated in security services operations. In April 2000 she initiated her contact with Lebedko and arranged the same year his trip to USA also financing his other trips abroad. In May 2002 Ledebko asked her to finance his trip to the conference of the International democratic union and received the sum needed.
Taking into account the fact that Anatoly Lebedko’s further contacts with the foreigners, especially those from the foreign embassies, involved in security services’ network, and passing over to them information may damage the state interests of the Republic of Belarus and grow into a crime, envisaged by article 356 of the Belarusian Penal code (high treason), which is legislatively in the competence of the state security bodies:
- citizen Lebedko under the Law “On the security state bodies of the Republic of Belarus” and Provision “On the order of issuing official reprimand on the inadmissibility of illegal actions” receives an official reprimand and is explained that should such acts continue in the future, while he doesn’t derive proper conclusions, he may finally commit a crime and be liable to criminal responsibility. He was told that the state procuracy would be notified about the warning made to him and that he has the right to appeal against the reprimand in the procuracy or court.
Citizen Lebedko was also told that in case he commits a crime, which damages the state or public interests or the rights and freedoms of citizens, which are protected by the law, the current protocol would be attached to his criminal case files.”